NKorea's ruling family 'collaborators'

In 1972 the then ruler of North Korea Kim il-Sung passed a law declaring: 'Enemies of class, whoever they are, their seed must be eliminated through three generations.' Many North Koreans have been sent to the gulags for the crimes of forebears. Now documents have been found which show the maternal grandfather of Kim Jong Un, the current leader, worked for the Japanese military - a crime for which he would be branded a traitor.

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PETER CAVE: North Korea is a nation in which the crimes of your ancestors can land you in the gulag and there's nothing worse than having a relative who collaborated with the hated Japanese occupiers.

And it seems that North Korea's new young leader Kim Jong-un may have had just such a traitor in the family.

New documents unearthed in Tokyo and seen by AM reveal that his maternal grandfather worked for the Japanese military, sparking claims that Kim Jong-un is the descendant of a traitor and is therefore unfit to rule.

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

MARK WILLACY: It's an Orwellian world in which traitorous blood can take generations to be washed away.

In fact in 1972 the then ruler of North Korea Kim il-Sung passed a law declaring:

EXTRACT FROM LAW: Enemies of class, whoever they are, their seed must be eliminated through three generations.

MARK WILLACY: Having relatives who collaborated with the former Japanese occupiers or who helped the capitalist South during the war was enough to have someone classified as an enemy of the state.

Tens of thousands have been sent to the gulag for the crimes of their forebears and many never made it out.

But it now seems the Kim dynasty itself has a traitor in the family in the form of Kim Jong-un's maternal grandfather Ko Gyon-tek.

Ken Kato is a Japanese human rights activist and researcher.

KEN KATO (translated): I discovered documents in the Defence Ministry archive in Tokyo which reveal that Kim Jong-un's maternal grandfather Ko Gyon-tek worked at the Hirota Sewing factory. What's significant about that is that it was run by Japan's Ministry of War, in other words the Japanese Army.

MARK WILLACY: Ken Kato says Ko Gyon-tek made uniforms for the army in the Japanese city of Osaka, making him under North Korean law a collaborator.

KEN KATO (translated): Collaborators with Japan were categorised as a hostile class, the lowest class in North Korea. In many cases they are branded as traitors and sent to political prison camps where many died.

MARK WILLACY: Collaborator or not, Ko Gyon-tek would escape the gulag thanks to his beautiful daughter Ko Young-hee who was born in Japan.

KEN KATO (translation): Ko Young-hee went to North Korea and became a dancer. She became a favourite of Kim Jong-il and later his mistress. When Kim's wife died she married him and had three children by him. One of them is Kim Jong-un.

MARK WILLACY: AM has seen copies of the documents discovered by Ken Kato - documents which could destroy many myths in North Korea about the Kim dynasty.

Most of all according to Mr Kato it could undermine the very ideology upon which the regime's ruling family bases its legitimacy.

KEN KATO (translated): I want Kim Jong-un to realise he's not at the top of North Korea's class system but rather he's a member of the lowest class - the hostile class.